Public forums focus on maternity ward, government center

Last Sunday, civil rights attorney Michael Sussman led two back-to-back public forums with concerned audiences.

Jessica Cohen

Last Sunday, civil rights attorney Michael Sussman led two back-to-back public forums with concerned audiences.

The first forum addressed the efforts of Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis to close its maternity ward. Participants talked about potential consequences and ways to oppose the closure.

At the second, an expert panel challenged the rationale of county executive Edward Diana's proposal to replace the Orange County Government Center, closed since September due to storm damage.

At the first meeting, Sussman told approximately 50 people that the community should take assertive measures to fully restore service at the Bon Secours maternity ward.

The attendees included several members of the Port Jervis Common Council and members of the Bon Secours maternity ward staff,

Doctors, nurses and patients have reported that staff members at Middletown Community Health Center, the maternity ward's source of referrals, have been directing pregnant women to Orange Regional Medical Center in the Town of Wallkill to deliver, explaining that the Bon Secours maternity ward is closing.

But while Bon Secours has applied to the state Health Department for permission to close the ward, the Health Department has made no decision and expects the ward to remain open while the decision is pending, Sussman said.

As futher evidence of patient rerouting, Sussman passed out copies of a letter he said was sent to obstetrical patients, advising them that "an MCHC obstetrician will deliver your baby at the new birthing center at ORMC."

Sussman advised attendees to demand that the state Health Department perform its regulatory duties and require Bon Secours to consistently offer obstetrical service.

He also suggested that the community conduct a "public visibility campaign" with letters and phone calls.

"At that point, the doors open," Leeper said. As a result, three women delivered at Bon Secours on Monday and Tuesday, and one on Wednesday.

Dr. Hugh Forbes said he has a patient pregnant with her seventh child, who has typically delivered within 15 minutes of going into labor. He said she would rather deliver in her bathtub than try to drive to Orange Regional, which is more than a half hour away — sometimes much more, depending on conditions.

If the maternity ward closes, Leeper predicted, "there will be maternal and baby deaths."

At the following meeting, Sussman hosted several experts and county legislators presenting evidence against county executive Edward Diana's claim that replacing the Orange County Government Center would cost $75 million, $2 million less than his estimate for renovating the damaged building.

Retired architect Harvey Berg, who has worked on numerous government buildings, said he has relied on estimates from Nasco Construction Services, a consulting firm that specializes in preparing cost estimates for construction, and found them to be "alarmingly accurate." They projected renovation would cost about $35.3 million, Berg said.

County Legislator Myrna Kemnitz said she had taken three tours of the damaged center and felt Diana's case for a new building is "smoke and mirrors," with little information about new materials and no information about dispensing of the old ones. On all three tours, she said, she had been allowed to see only certain parts of the building, and reports of "toxic mold" were unsubstantiated.

County Legislator Matt Turnbull, who has also been a building contractor, said that in his experience gutting a building, rather than replacing it, was consistently more cost- and time-effective.

Historian Richard Hull made a case for the historic significance of the current Government Center, which was designed in 1963 by world-famous architect Paul Rudolph. Kemnitz said the proposed design for the new building looked like a Brooklyn public school, P.S. 152.

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